Cut; Cutting:
(karath, gadha?, kachadh, nathach; apokopto, ekkopto): Many Hebrew words are translated "cut." Of these karath, "to cut down, out, off," is the most frequent. As "cut off" it is used in the sense of laying or destroying (Ge 9:11; De 12:29; 1Ki 11:16; Ps 101:8, etc.), also for cutting off transgressors from the community of Yahweh, which meant probably separation, or exclusion, rather than death or destruction (Ge 17:14; Ex 12:15,19). Other words are damam, ("to be silent," "cease" Jer 25:37 the King James Version; Jer 48:2); tsamath "to destroy" (Ps 54:5 the King James Version; Ps 94:23, etc.); gadhadh, "to cut, one's self," is used of the cutting of one's flesh before heathen gods and in mourning for the dead, which was forbidden to the Israelites, (De 14:1; 1Ki 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5); sereT, sareTeth, "incision," are also used of those "cuttings of the flesh" (Le 19:28; compare Le 21:5). See CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH. The cutting of the hair of head and beard in mourning for the dead is referred to in Isa 15:2; "Every, beard is cut off" (gadha?), and Jer 7:29, gazaz, "Cut off thy hair" (the Revised Version, margin "thy crown"), O Jerusalem (compare Isa 22:12; Jer 16:6; Eze 7:18; Am 8:10). This early and widespread practice was also forbidden to the Israelites as being unworthy of them in their relation to Yahweh (Le 19:27; De 14:1).
Charosheth, "carving," "engraving," is used for the cutting of stones (Ex 31:5; 35:33).
In the New Testament we have apokopto "to cut away" (Mr 9:43,45; Ga 5:12 the King James Version; see CONCISION); diaprio, "to saw through" (Ac 5:33, "they were cut to the heart"); dichotomeo, "to cut in two" (Mt 24:51); suntemno, "to cut together" (Ro 9:28), "finishing it and cutting it short," i. e; "making it conclusive and brief."
"mutilate themselves," the American Standard Revised Version "go "rest"), "noontide," margin "Or, tranquillity" (Gesenius, Delitzsch, etc., "in the quiet of my days"); instead of, "I would that they were even cut off which trouble you" (Ga 5:12), Among the changes of the Revised Version (British and American) are "brought to silence" for "cut down" (Jer 25:37), also for "cut off" (Zec 12:3); for "cut off," "pass through" (Job 11:10), head" (Am 9:1), "break them in pieces on the head of"; for "in the cutting off of my days" (Isa 38:10; Hebrew demi, "silence," the English Revised Version has "cut themselves off," margin beyond circumcision," margin, Greek: "mutilate themselves." W. L. Walker "gone" (Ps 90:10); "rolled up" (Isa 38:12); "cut off" for "destroy" (Ps 18:40; 69:4; 118:10,11,12); for "cut them in the (Jer 49:26; 50:30); "sore wounded" for "cut in pieces"
Cutting Asunder →Cuttings in the Flesh:
(sereT, sareTeth): For relatives or friends to cut or beat themselves even to free blood-flowing, especially in the violence of grief in mourning for their dead (see BURIAL; MOURNING), was a widely prevalent custom among ancient peoples, and is well-nigh universal among uncivilized races today (see Spencer, Prin. of Soc., 3rd edition, I, 163 ff). The fact is abundantly attested for most of the nations of antiquity, but there are two notable exceptions, the Egyptians (Herod. ii.61, 85; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptian II, 374), and the Hebrews (De 14:1; Le 21:5). According to Plutarch (Sol. 21) Solon forbade the women of Athens to beat themselves to the effusion of blood, and the laws of the Twelve Tables, quoted by Cic. (De leg. ii.23) contained a like injunction. Among the ancient Arabs the forbidden practice was associated, as among the Hebrews, with the cutting off of the hair (Wellhausen, Skizzen, III, 160 f).
That the prohibition among the Hebrews was urgently called for is made clear by the way it is dealt with by the Law and the prophets. The Law of Holiness reads: "Ye are the children of Yahweh your God: ye shall not cut yourselves" (De 14:1), or "make any incision" (sereT; Le 19:28, sareTeth; Septuagint entomis) in the flesh "for the dead." Probably the earliest reference to the custom as actually prevalent among the Hebrews is in Ho 7:14 (ERVm). It was widely prevalent in the time of Jeremiah among his countrymen, even as among the Philistines (Jer 47:5) and the Moabites (Jer 48:37; compare Am 8:10; Isa 3:24; 15:2; 22:12; Mic 1:16; Eze 7:18).
In seeking for the reason or purpose underlying all such prohibitions, we may note, first, that the "cuttings" and "baldness" forbidden are alike said to be "for the dead." Not less explicitly are they said to be incompatible with Israel's unique relation to Yahweh-a relation at once of sonship (De 14:1) and of consecration (De 14:2). Moreover such mutilations of the body are always dealt with as forming part of the religious rites of the heathen (as of the Canaanitish Baal (1Ki 18:28) note "after their manner," see article in HDB, under the word). Both such shedding of blood and the dedication of the hair are found in almost all countries of that day in intimate connection with the rituals of burial and the prevailing belief in the necessity of propitiating the spirit of the deceased. The conclusion, then, seems clearly warranted that such tokens of grief were prohibited because they carried with them inevitably ideas and associations distinctly heathen in character and so incompatible with the pure religion of Yahweh, and unworthy of those who had attained to the dignity of the sons ("children") of Yahweh.
LITERATURE.
Benzinger, Heb Arch., section 23; Nowack, Heb Arch., I, 33 f; Tylor, Prim. Cult.; W. R. Smith, Rel Semitic, Lect IX; and Comm., Knobel-Dillmann, Ex-Le on Le 19:28; Driver, De on 14:1; and Lightfoot, Ga on 6:17.
Written by George B. Eager
See STIGMATA, MARK
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